MONTGOMERY: Wrester of the Year

Reynolds worked his way to top

By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
   Tom Reynolds was coming off a breakthrough junior wrestling season in which he went 29-10 and reached the Meet of Champions.
   Right from the start, he showed he was going to be even better in his senior season with the Montgomery High School.
   ”He beat three guys that at least made it to regions right away in the first weekend at the Garden City Classic,” said MHS coach Kevin Jacoutot. “Right out of the gate, he beat some good guys.”
   Reynolds continued to best good and bad wrestlers throughout the season all the way through returning to the Meet of Champions — the lone representative from the Packet area.
   Wrestling up, he captured his second straight Somerset County Tournament title at 125 pounds. While last year, he took a narrow 5-4 win over North Plainfield’s Mario Herrera, it was a convincing 11-6 score this season over Herrera. After falling in a controversial finals match last year, he won the District 18 title at 119 pounds. And after finishing third at the Region V meet last season, he moved up to finish second to an unbeaten opponent this year and qualify for the MOC again, the first repeat qualifier in Montgomery history.
   ”You could tell from his confidence he was better,” Jacoutot said. “He was very dominant. Last year, he had some close ones that he lost, and maybe he shouldn’t have lost a few of them. He was a hammer this year. He lost a few, but he dominated everyone else.”
   Reynolds helped his Cougars team go 13-7. He finished his senior season with a 32-5 record, half the number of losses of a year ago even though the competition was much improved.
   Tom Reynolds is the Princeton Packet Wrestler of the Year.
   ”He’s making this program better just by achieving what he achieved,” Jacoutot said. “The kids are coming up have the experience now because they’re inspired by guys like have. Nick Cassar and Alex Sottile have been with the program since it started. They started a foundation. They’re making it a very competitive program.
   ”We’re going to miss them. They came to me with no clue with wrestling was.”
   Reynolds wasn’t there as a freshman. He was still playing basketball, one of the myriad of sports that he had tried. He also played soccer, football, lacrosse and baseball, even used to swim competitively in the summer. But when he came to the wrestling team as a sophomore, he found his true calling even though he had no plans then to become a collegiate wrestler.
   ”I just kept training and kept doing the hard practices,” said Reynolds, who will join the Penn State University team in the fall. “I was just trying to get myself better and better. I felt I had a lot better season than I did last year. Technique-wise, I felt better. I felt better than last year. I think I looked better than last year. I had more wins and less losses.
   ”The junior year gave me a lot more motive to work hard and train because the success was such a motive. Just winning in general and doing well makes you feel better. It makes you think all the hard work and the training pay off, and when you want to say I’m too tired, pushing through that in practice really helped on the mat.”
   Reynolds started looking to his senior season as soon as his junior one ended. He worked out three times a day. He hired a nutritionist. He never turned down an opportunity to compete, never passed up a chance to get better.
   ”He took it extremely seriously,” Jacoutot said. “He’s probably the most dedicated kid on the team. He wanted to do well. Particularly in a state like New Jersey, where it’s deep, it’s tough. He got the most out of his time wrestling. He did great.”
   Jacoutot only wishes that Reynolds had more time wrestling, that he had started at a younger age. Reynolds has seen some of MHS’ future, some of the kids he inspired. He was treated like a hero at a middle school banquet. Had he started that young, it’s hard to imagine where he’d be now.
   ”I think about it a little bit,” Reynolds said. “Some kids are burned out. I wouldn’t be burned out though if I started freshman year. At the time, I liked basketball. It was something I tried new and I ended up being good at it. I have no regrets.”
   It didn’t take Reynolds long to make up for lost time. He regularly went against opponents with more experience, but never backed down. Jacoutot is confident that Reynolds will continue to improve when he goes to Penn State, where he will redshirt as a freshman.
   ”Look how far he improved in a short amount of time here,” Jacoutot said. “He’ll take a beating in the beginning, but if he sticks it out, by junior or senior year he’ll be a starter. And the sky’s the limit. He knows it’ll be a tough task. Penn State is a tough team. Big Ten wrestling is very tough. He’s game. That’s half the battle. He’s a tough kid.”
   Before he starts his collegiate career, Reynolds is preparing for one final scholastic competition. He will compete in Virginia Beach, Va., at the high school nationals. It’s a chance for him to avenge an early MOC loss, one his only disappointments in a remarkable season.
   ”I think I did well,” Reynolds said. “It just wasn’t the ending I wanted.”
   With a promising future ahead on the mats, however, his senior season at Montgomery High was more like a beginning to something bigger and better. He leaves the Cougars better off than when he began. They will continue to strive for new heights as they follow the hard-working example Tom Reynolds, one of the program’s most accomplished wrestlers ever.